China takes the lead in number of broadband lines

The number of broadband lines in the world passes 400 million and is estimated to grow to 680 million in 2013, according to forecasts by Point Topic. And on the top of the list will be China. Get ready for some great Eastern web successes!

In terms of actual numbers, China will be far in front of any other country in broadband lines. Point Topic estimates that China in five years will have 153 million broadband lines against 117 million in USA. The penetration ration will of course be much higher in a number of other countries, especially in the Scandinavian countries, as showed in this graph:

The strong growth of broadband lines in China is bound to have an effect on how the Internet develops further. We have already observed how a high penetration rate in the Scandinavian market has inspired numerous new products and dramatically changed how people use the web.

With almost one quarter of the world’s broadband lines in China in 2013, we should expect to see many more of the global winning web concepts coming from Asia. So far the leading web brands mostly have been developed in the USA. My guess is that in five years time at least two of the top tens sites among Western users originally was developed in Asia.